Dowler Place meeting planned for Wednesday
On Friday at 5:14 p.m., the City of Victoria finally announced the next community meeting to be held about the proposed hub for drug users and the homeless at 2155 Dowler Place.
The meeting will be held this Wednesday, giving residents just five days’ notice.
Is the city actively trying to make decisions that garner them zero public support? Has the city not followed the media these last few months?
The public is wildly against Mayor Marianne Alto after her attempt at muzzling the firefighter Josh Montgomery, not to mention her doubling down against Premier David Eby.
Opposition to the mayor is rising because of plans to spread the chaos of Pandora Avenue into neighbourhoods.
No doubt the city is hoping no one attends this next community meeting, at which one single hour has been allotted.
All Victoria residents should attend this meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Victoria Curling Club to show that you care about the future of this city.
Casey Innes
Victoria
Pause Dowler Place due to opposition
Last week, Premier David Eby paused a planned 90-unit supportive housing unit in Richmond in response to public outcry.
He said the housing minister made this decision because adequate work had not been done to ensure the site chosen was the right site and to ensure all issues in the community had been addressed.
There is strong public opposition to the service hub for drug users planned for 2155 Dowler Place, opposition that was strengthened after the city suspended firefighter Josh Montgomery for writing to the premier about the project.
Mayor Marianne Alto should learn something from the premier and pause the Dowler Place project before the Premier is forced to step in. Or will she double down against the premier, as she did with the Montgomery faux pas?
Chuck Downie
Victoria
This is a challenge for the community
So, the idea of church parking lot use by the homeless in exchange for tax breaks was flawed? Letter-writers and other public voices were quick to identify the deficiencies of the idea that the mayor was simply floating.
I’m not writing to deny those deficiencies, but to observe that every strategy for ending the catastrophe on Pandora Avenue and elsewhere has problems and deficiencies of one kind or another.
“Well, the feds should this, and the province should that.”
Right. Stack that idea beside the fact that every city in North America, large and small, it seems, is facing the same homeless reality; and just maybe we’re confronting a major social event that no amount of government tinkering is able to eliminate (as homeless numbers expand).
Drugs? Mental de-institutionalization? Despair? Broken lives? Job challenges? A generalized inability to perform socially? All of that and more.
If we’re going to craft a successful response, however defined, we are going to need greater social resilience and innovation.
Mayor Marianne Alto: put the community to work.
Gene Miller
Victoria
Centennial Square could be a green oasis
When you look up Douglas Street north of the Royal B.C. Museum grounds, it gradually devolves into an endless mass of grey. There is no green space in the nearly four-kilometre stretch from Belleville to Uptown.
Centennial Square is an opportunity to create a green oasis. The Sequoia should remain as a crowning glory, with large planter boxes housing a variety of native plants and shaped to define elevation changes on the west side of the square.
A splashpad might be used for eight weeks a year, and then what? The fountain is part of our modern history and should be restored, not wrecked.
The south facing walls of the parkade could be painted with a mosaic of eye-catching colours and maybe even a hanging garden like those on Tyee Road.
Green space is calming to our psyche, something our stressed downtown needs. Imagine sitting on a bench, in the dappled shade of a dogwood or a pacific maple, listening to bird song.
The square does not lend itself to large outdoor concerts, with limited capacity and inadequate staging. Our harbour is much better suited for larger scale outdoor concerts, taking advantage of the natural rise for amphitheatre-style seating and expansive flat surface areas.
No one comes to Vancouver Island, let alone downtown Victoria, to see another blighted concrete jungle.
Eve Millington
Victoria
Commercial rentals should be controlled
When local businesses close because the rent has gone up, such that the business is no longer viable, another piece of our city is chipped away, jobs are lost and another building has a vacancy.
If a homeowner with a suite is subject to rent restrictions, why is a commercial landlord allowed to do whatever they want, with their pockets being the only important thing?
Scott Adams
Victoria
Bridge to mainland should be considered
I just returned from a holiday on the east coast, including a trip to Prince Edward Island via the two-lane Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick. At nearly 14 kilometres, it’s Canada’s longest bridge and replaces the previous ferries.
It was completed in 1997 at a cost of $1 billion. Since 2006, a toll is charged only when returning to New Brunswick. I paid $50 for my car. The bridge is for vehicles only, pedestrians ($5) and cyclists ($10) can take a shuttle, which is only charged when returning to New Brunswick.
Are ferry travellers in B.C. fed up with constant delays and breakdowns yet? Maybe it’s time to look into a bridge between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen, roughly triple the distance as the one from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.
Is the province ready to invest in a permanent alternative to ferries?
Peter Anders
Victoria
Today’s young people need opportunity
Re: “After the opportunities their parents had,” letter, Sept. 5.
Jordan Ellis clearly explains why young people today are discouraged with the state of affairs facing their generation. Finding affordable accommodation, be it rental or ownership, is met with indifference, and lack of action is truly mind-boggling.
Yes, as the author states, “the entitlement is baffling.” And what is more worrisome is the divide that separates those who have and those who do not is only going to grow and leave countless more young people disadvantaged for years to come.
So what does that mean for the rest of us? Should we ignore a cohort that we have raised but now abandon to a world that is impossible to live in?
Our responsibility is to provide homes people can afford and not luxury properties for the wealthy. Those with home security might reflect on how you got there.
Ask yourself if your first monthly home expense cost you half a paycheque.
One might argue all generations faced economic challenges. I however believe the situation today is unique. When hard-working young people are denied opportunity, then our country is truly in trouble.
Margaret Hodgson
Parksville
Better transit needed throughout the Island
Many people move to Vancouver Island for the beauty and the chance to live the outdoor lifestyle our temperate weather offers. They look forward to exploring outside the city. Camping spots are hard to book and demand is high.
How in the world does it make sense to provide housing in a 91-unit rental building in the city of Victoria with four parking spots which “may” make it more affordable?
Do we have excellent public transit available for exploring the island?
No. Once you reach Langford by bus you’re on your own for getting farther north.
Expand public transit to cover the entire Island and make it within easy reach. Provide the infrastructure to support all these people who move into a building with no parking and then find themselves unable to do anything except jump on their bikes, hop on a bus and explore the city.
The city has a lot to offer but public transit north of the city is a disgrace.
We have everything — stunning scenery, beautiful parks with hiking for miles, mountains, lakes — but access to them without a car? No.
Short-term planning without putting in the infrastructure is shortsighted planning and it will come back to bite us.
Faith Rolfe
James Bay
Victoria does not need so much parking
Re: “Victoria council approves more housing — with far less parking,” Sept. 7.
The chair of the Victoria Real Estate Board claims that Victoria is “not ready to become more car-free like Toronto.”
In fact, by some measures Victoria is already more car-free.
According to the most recent census, only 53% of City of Victoria residents got to work by car — the lowest of any city in Canada. The comparable figure for the City of Toronto is 61%.
Victoria may not have as well-developed a transit system as Toronto, but it has far higher levels of people who get around by walking or cycling — the highest in Canada.
According to the Capital Regional District, 25% of households in the City of Victoria — and 41% of downtown households — do not own a car.
Clearly, many people are choosing a car-free lifestyle, so it makes perfect sense to cater to those people with buildings that don’t require them to pay for a parking space they don’t need.
In recent years, dozens of North American cities have removed their parking minimum requirements entirely.
Hopefully, Victoria will soon do the same.
Rob Maxwell
Victoria
Drivers, cyclists should change their thinking
Re: “Maybe, finally, we can talk about bicyclist safety,” commentary, Sept 4.
I agree with the points made regarding the need for drivers to be more aware and courteous toward cyclists. As the writer points out and from my own experience as a lifelong cyclist, it is clear that many drivers are unaware how vulnerable cyclist are and others are downright aggressive.
Clearly many drivers are frustrated how bike lanes have slowed traffic flow in Greater Victoria. It is still a car-centric road system and it is not surprising drivers feel entitled not to be impeded by cyclists and may make poor decisions.
Driver attitudes will need to catch up to the rapid changes in infrastructure and the dramatic increase in the number of cyclists.
However, too many cyclists are unaware of their own vulnerability. Cyclists can do much to mitigate risks to themselves: install a mirror, use a bell or call out when passing pedestrians or bikes, wear bright clothing, use lights at night, signal your intentions.
Would you drive a car without a horn, mirrors, signal or driving lights? Avoid busy narrow streets, seek out designated bike roads, protected lanes or quiet side streets.
Not practising these precautions invites injury or death. It doesn’t matter if you were in the right, when you are being taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Ben Kangasniemi
Victoria
Less is best with bicycle routes
Re: “Many options when you have a bicycle,” letter, Sept. 3.
The letter made me laugh! If an older person can no longer drive, is cycling really an option if they either have poor eyesight or slow reaction times?
Secondly, I find that there are a number of unnecessary “improvements” being made to have cyclists supposedly feel safer. I am nervous on two-way bike lanes, especially with the number of cyclists who zoom by without warning. If I needed to dodge an oncoming bike, road debris or a homeless person along Pandora Avenue, I would either be hit from behind, hit a person or be hitting a cement curb either side, likely resulting in injury.
And finally, there is way too much visual pollution with the amount of signage as well as painting on the roads on the new bike routes, Fort Street being an extreme example.
This is more noticeable after dark when rain creates reflections on wet surfaces. I cycle and drive regularly so have experience over many years of all the road changes and suggest less is best.
Jennie Sutton
Oak Bay
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